Love Calling, That Night in 1877
by LoveActuallyFan
Summary: Le One-shot. Burnt spaghetti, brandy, underclothes and a young Helen and Nikola. The scene from Love Calling - Part 12 - After Bank Job. Can also be a stand alone piece if you're interested in a little Teslen fluff.


**So, I did it. Here it is. Excuse the sappy-ness at the end, I did finish writing this at 4:30am. :)**

**A big thanks to Emmy1512 for the editing and her poking to keep me awake :) I did have a rather interesting dream last night, involving whipped cream and a certain someone. Sadly, it was horribly boring. :( Curse my subconscious.**

**Anyway, here is some Teslen fluff.**

**xxx**

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><p><strong>Love Calling - That Night in 1877<strong>

Nikola Tesla couldn't quite believe what was happening. He'd been in a sort of a stupor all day, in fact. He couldn't concentrate on his classes, he couldn't form a coherent sentence, he couldn't even feed his damn pigeons that day. The day she'd asked him to come for dinner.

He'd met Miss Helen Magnus a few months before and they'd instantly bonded as close friends. They were both outcasts in some sense and this had allowed for a kinship to be formed that transcended nationality and gender. This did not mean that he wasn't acutely aware that she was a woman, he was painfully so. He honestly felt that he'd never met a more beautiful creature in all his life, and she'd chosen him, a man six years her junior, to become best friends with. He'd asked himself repeatedly over the past months what he'd done to deserve such a stroke of luck. He'd come to realise though, a stroke of luck it was not.

Nikola Tesla was in love with her. Completely. Utterly. She was a raging force of nature – witty, smart, stubborn as all hell and more than willing to argue with him until the end of days. She was the only person he'd come across that matched him in his intensity of desire for the acquisition of scientific knowledge and he saw his own mindless determination mirrored in her eyes. Yes, he was utterly smitten and she'd shown no signs of returning his amorous affections. Not until that day.

Now, as Nikola stood in the middle of her room, his world slightly fuzzy from too much brandy and her scent swirling around him, he had to literally pinch himself. It had all started with a not-so-well-thought-out attempt at making supper.

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><p>"Oh my God!" Helen shouted in a most unladylike manner. Nikola was taken aback at her verbalisation. He'd never heard a well-to-do woman ever speak in such a way.<p>

"H-Helen... here..." He quickly grabbed the pan she was trying to move off the heat, flinging it into the large sink, still ablaze. He quickly spotted a bucket filled with water and flung it over the pan, which was spewing smoke. As the flames subsided their eyes locked, both their breathing rapid. Helen was the first to crack and let out a cautious few giggles before clutching her middle in laughter.

Nikola, still slightly stunned, managed a smile. He couldn't take his eyes off her. She was so beautiful, with hair slightly sticking to her neck due to the light sheen of sweat that had accumulated as she'd tried to cook. Good god, her neck. It was the perfect length of milky white skin that glowed in the dim lighting. How he longed to press his lips to her flesh.

"You, Miss Magnus, are utterly insane," he stated, breathing huge gulps to right his mind. Helen only grinned wider and leaned heavily against a kitchen counter.

"And you are too prim and proper, Niko."

It was the first time he'd ever been called that, and he found he quite liked the way his new nickname slid from her lips.

Nikola had certainly divorced himself from his prim and proper image that night. After their little 'incident' in the kitchen, Helen had stood stoically while her father scolded her for ruining half the service area. He'd been disbelieving when he'd heard she'd excused the maid for the evening so that she could try her hand at the dinner preparations.

Nikola glanced sideways at the firmly set jaw of his best friend and he couldn't help the small smile that jumped to his face at the determined look she had ingrained onto her face.

Unfortunately, her father took this as downright petulance.

He was standing outside their sizable London mansion in mere seconds, her father mumbling about bad influences. He stared wide-eyed at Helen who pushed past her father to pull him into a hug. He gasped softly at the feeling of her body pressed fully against his, every corseted curve able to be felt. He gulped and rested his hands around her waist, gripped her gently.

"Helen!" her father had yelped, glancing up and down their street for eye-witnesses to her outrageous behaviour. Nikola felt Helen smirk against his neck before pressing something into his left hand quickly.

"Twenty minutes," she whispered before removing herself from him, to his great displeasure.

Nikola gave what he thought was an amiable smile to her father as Helen ran away from him, disappearing inside her home with not a backward glance. Her father glared at him before slamming the door. Nikola swallowed hard and chanced a look down into his hand. A key.

For which door, he didn't know. So he tried all of them, barring the front door which he was pretty sure she wouldn't have given him the key to. Eventually, he found small side door, nearly completely overgrown with foliage. The lock clicked and his heart leaped into his throat. This was definitely not gentlemanly behaviour. Definitely. As soon as he'd unlocked it, it pulled inwards, revealing a rather irate Helen Magnus.

"It's been an hour!"

He shrugged and darted inside, still afraid of her father's wrath. "The door is invisible from the outside!"

Helen sighed and pulled the door shut tightly, locking it once more. "Come on." She grasped his hand tightly and he blanched at the contact, her small fingers fitting so perfectly between his.

"Helen..." he started but she didn't stop and answer, only pulled him more forcefully through the service corridors of her home. "Helen, stop...Helen!"

She only pulled him faster before quickly reaching a door and shoving him inside. Nikola had been in grand rooms before, but Helen Magnus' bedchamber took the proverbial cake. It was huge, with a massive four-poster bed dominating the foreground. Nikola found all the rugs, tables, intricate chairs and paintings fade from his vision as he imagined Helen laying sprawled across its soft sheets.

"Nikola?" Helen was staring at him curiously as he stared enquiringly at her bed. She'd locked the secret door and was standing at his side, trying to see what had captivated his interest so keenly.

"Helen... I don't think we should be doing this." He spun around, speaking quickly. She stared at him with wide eyes for a few moments before sighing and moving to her dresser.

Slowly she opened a drawer and pulled out a glass decanter of brown liquid.

"Well, who am I going to share this with then?"

Nikola groaned inwardly - now they very definitely should not be doing this. "You stole your father's brandy? Helen!" he drew out the last syllable of her name in frustration, tinged with slight amusement. He was never, ever bored with her.

"Not stole!" she admonished, pulling two glasses out of the same drawer and removing the stopper of the decanter, "just... borrowed for the night."

"Helen." He raised his eyebrows at her before taking the glass she extended to him. Sipping at the fine liquid he coughed slightly, a burning sensation sliding down his throat. Helen giggled as she took her own sip.

"If your father finds us..." Nikola started but Helen rolled her eyes at him.

"He won't. It's nearly 9pm. He's always in his laboratory until the early hours from now. He won't find us."

"He will kill me."

"No he won't. Stop being so over dramatic."

"Helen..."

"Oh, Nikola. Just enjoy yourself. Please?"

Nikola sighed before gripping the glass in his hand tightly and downing the expensive brandy in one go. Helen's eyes widened as he stretched his arm out, asking for a refill. She smiled and gladly acquiesced. When he was refilled Nikola placed his glass down on the nearest table and began to unbutton his stiff suit jacket. Helen's eyes grew to saucers again and she spluttered on the rather large gulp of alcohol she'd taken.

Sliding out of his jacket he draped it carefully over one of the chairs closest to him and began to untie his shoes. Dabbing at her mouth daintily Helen watched, fascinated by him.

Finally free of his most restricting items, Nikola swiped his glass back up before striding over to Helen's immaculately made bed and hauling himself up onto it. There he sat, watching her shocked face intently.

"You said enjoy myself!"

Helen's pretty mouth hung open for a few seconds before the glint returned to her eyes and she gulped the last of her brandy. Abandoning the glass, she instead gripped the decanter and slipped over to where he sat, tossing her shoes aside on the way. Nikola smirked and patted the expanse of bed next to him. He had to muffle a snort of laughter as she tried and failed to conquer the climb onto her bed in her voluminous gown.

He actually heard her growl in frustration before spinning around, her back exposed to him.

"Untie me," she demanded and Nikola faltered slightly before reaching out to do her bidding. He was glad she was facing away from him as his usually deft fingers trembled when they touched the delicate buttons that held her dress in place.

It took Nikola a good ten minutes to undo the fiddly material buttons that ran right the way down Helen's back. As he undid the last one he let out an exclamation of triumph. Helen smiled and spun around again, thrusting the brandy into his arms. Leaning forwards she pulled the dress away from her body and tried to step out of the skirts that surrounded her. Due to her consumption of brandy though, her foot collided with something frilly and she staggered slightly. Nikola was on his feet immediately, his hands reaching out to catch her.

She giggled softly as she felt his hands land around her corseted waist and haul her upwards, lifting her bodily out of her dress. Nikola tried to avert his eyes as he let go of her and stood back. Helen sighed and let her back face him again.

"I'm afraid you'll have to undo the corset as well."

Nikola nodded dumbly and carefully undid the bow at the top of the ribbon holding her together. Helen sighed breathily as his hands made quick work of the oppressive garment.

Undoing her underskirts and petticoats Helen was eventually able to shrug out of her corset and step out of her skirts, with Nikola's strong arms to hold on to.

Nikola moved to help her gather up her discarded clothes but she stopped him, picking up the brandy from where he'd laid it on the bed and taking a hefty swig. He still had not worked up the courage to look at her yet. Sensing his nervousness Helen thrust the brandy towards him and he took a grateful gulp before meeting her eyes and smiling.

He'd never seen her in such little clothing, just a light cotton chemise and nothing else. He gulped and returned to the bed, offering her a hand. She ignored his chivalry and jumped nimbly onto the bed, her mass of blonde curls bouncing gently. She giggled and lay back fully on her own mattress, looking up to the ceiling. Nikola smiled as he spun and lay on his side, looking across at her.

His breath caught in his throat and he gasped out in wonder as he stared.

"My god, Helen, is that..." he trailed off and she glanced at him and then frowned as she followed his eyes. She rolled her own.

"Nikola. You are woefully under-dressed, as am I, you're lounging next to me on my bed, brandy in hand, and all you can think about is a telephone?"

Nikola pressed himself upwards to get a better look at the device.

"You know what a huge admirer I am of Reis and Meucci. Not to mention Bell. You actually have a working telephone?" his incredulous tone made Helen smile.

"Yes, one in here and one in my father's room. It was a gift from Mr. Bell last year. He's only just acquired the patent for it. Nikola... would you like to..."

"Yes! God, yes!"

Helen cocked an eyebrow at his obvious excitement and sashayed off the bed, reaching for her long robe.

"When it rings, pick it up." She said in matter-of-fact tone and exited her own chambers to wander tipsily to her father's. Nikola shimmied over to the device, his eyes wide in wonder. He only had to wait a few minutes before the shrill tone of the telephone ringing shook him. Carefully, reverently, Nikola grasped the mouth piece and earphone in two trembling hands.

"Helen?" He whispered and he heard her giggle down the line.

"Hello Niko!"

"My god, Helen, this is amazing."

"Yes, I guess it is. Can I come back now? I miss you."

"No... wait... say, something else?"

"Like what?"

Nikola chuckled.

"I don't know. Say..."

"I still miss you. Please can I come back?"

Nikola sighed and smiled at her words.

"Alright. Come back."

He started slightly at the click of the phone being re-hooked and he delicately replaced his own receiver. When Helen re-entered her bedroom he was still inspecting the device, his brow furrowed in intense concentration.

Helen let out an exasperated sigh before throwing off her robe and taking his hands in hers, pulling him off the bed.

"Helen!"

"Nikola, please, no work... just for tonight," she whispered, pulling him into the centre of her room and wrapping her arms around his neck. She felt him stiffen as her body came into contact with his and she rested her head on his chest, swaying slightly to non-existent music. As carefully as he had handled the telephone, he placed his hands on Helen's waist, his mind drawing a blank at such an intimate act.

"Helen?" He whispered breathily.

"Hmmm?"

"That was my first telephone conversation." He couldn't help the all-consuming grin that plastered itself onto his face.

"I know, Nikola, I know." She shifted herself impossibly closer to him, revelling in the feeling of his lithe body so close to hers.

"Do you think your father would let me take it apart sometime? Just to have a look..."

"Nikola! Please, just... dance with me." She sighed into him, her nose nuzzling softly into his neck. Nikola gulped loudly at the action and gripped her waist a little tighter, his fingertips digging into the expensive fabric.

As she moved against him Nikola found it increasingly more difficult to think about the wonders of the device he'd just been privileged enough to use. Instead his mind flittered off randomly and thought of things like Helen's soft flesh under his hands, and how she managed to smell like violets when spring was not even fully realised.

"Helen?" Nikola whispered softly, tilting his chin down so that he looked into her golden hair.

"Yes, Niko."

His lips pulled up at the corners at her recently thought-up nickname for him.

"You know, If I could build myself one, I could speak to you every day when we're apart for the holidays. They're starting to lay cables al-"

Helen let out a small yelp of frustration and shoved him backwards, the back of his knees hitting her bed and buckling. He steadied her as she landed squarely on top of him, their legs tangled in each others. Helen smiled softly down at him as he stared at her with eyes the size of dinner plates.

"Would you stop talking about the damned telephone, Nikola!"

Nikola laughed at the ridiculous situation he found himself in. If her father walked in now, he was a dead man. He gasped loudly as she squirmed on top of him, brushing against him gently.

"Helen," he warned in a low voice, his hands gripping into her hips to stop her movement.

She only stared down at him, her head cocked to the side in interest. He visibly tried to pull back when she leaned down, her lips flirting with the edges of his ear.

"Do you like it when I move on top of you, Nikola?" She tried to wriggle in his grasp but he held tight, unwilling to be so untoward in her presence.

"Helen," he warned again, this time right into her ear.

"What if I used my hands..." She slid her hands from his shoulders down to his chest and stomach and he shuddered as her breath tickled his ear.

"Helen! You've had too much brandy." He caught her hands and she pouted at him, now free to move her hips again his. He almost let her continue as the friction of what she was doing undid him. He reigned himself in though and caught her around the waist, pulling her off of him and plopping her down on the mattress next to him.

"Niko!"

He grinned at her then, his eyes flicking to her lips and then back up to her eyes. There was an almost instant change in her demeanour as she realised what he was thinking, she blinked rapidly. Despite being twenty-seven years of age, she'd always been shielded so intensely by her father that she'd never had the chance to feel a man's lips on hers, not properly anyway. She instantly drew back and reached for the brandy decanter. Nikola had to prise it from the death-grip she had on it before laying it on a bedside table.

"Enough for tonight, Helen. You need sleep, and I need to find accommodation for the night."

"Stay with me?" she questioned. "Please?"

Even though the invitation sounded heavenly, there was not enough brandy in his system for him to completely forget what she was asking him.

"Helen, love, I definitely cannot do that. What would people say?"

"They won't find out! Please, Nikola. Just sleep next to me, please?"

He crumbled as her deep blue eyes begged him, he could never deny her anything.

"OK, but... just tonight, and no more brandy."

She nodded seriously and scrambled under the covers he held open for her. Sliding in beside her they stayed prone like that for some time, both staring at the drapery of the four-poster bed.

Eventually, Nikola shifted his eyes slowly to the steadily breathing form next to him and found her eyes half closed and a small smile on her face. This caused his own joy to surface and he shifted slightly to his side so that he could get a better view of her.

"Helen?" he whispered, his breath causing her hair to flutter. She shifted closer to him and sighed deeply.

"Mmmm."

"Helen, can I..." He started, his eyes darting down to the exposed neck which now lay directly in front of him. When she didn't reply or make any movements Nikola reached forwards tentatively, the scent of her filling his nostrils delicately. He felt himself shiver and he moved so that his arm could slip behind her neck. She sighed and rolled towards him, giving him even better access to her sweet flesh.

"Helen..." He breathed ethereally before lower his lips gently to the smooth skin of her neck, pecking her softly. She made no protests at his actions and he smirked against her, opening his lips and gently sucking her skin into his mouth.

She gasped then, her eyes flying open at the sensation of a man's lips pulling at her neck. She made an attempt at forming words but they only came out as a moan and Nikola's hold tightened on her.

He was in heaven. Helen's skin tasted like nothing he'd ever sampled before. Her flesh was slightly sweet but had smooth undertones of spice and a hint of violets. He let out a shuddering breath against her flesh and she trembled in his arms, her body still limp.

"Helen..." he gasped as he let her pulse point go with a slight smack. She only shuffled more towards him and buried her face in the crook of his neck. He smiled and tightened his grip around her body, pulling her curves flush against his body. She had her eyes squeezed shut, her body as relaxed as she could possibly muster, but her heart-rate was pounding.

Nikola gazed down at the woman curled in his arms, he couldn't help himself, she was so close to him, their breaths practically using the same air. He swallowed hard before leaning down and pressing his lips to hers in a gentle kiss.

Helen was in shock, the feel of his soft lips on hers made her blood run cold and searing hot at the same time. Pressing slightly more firmly his lips moulded to hers and she yearned to press back, to open her mouth under his. But, as soon as she'd worked up the courage to dart her tongue out he pulled away, the loss of pressure nearly causing her to cry out. She leaned towards him though as he pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead and cradled her safely in his arms.

Helen let out a long, shaky breath and snuggled closer, trying to quiet her heartbeat and just enjoy the feel of her best friend pressed up against her. The last thing she remembered before sleep claimed her was smiling softly at the feel of her first kiss still lingering on her lips.

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><p><strong>Alexander Graham Bell most certainly did acquire his patent for the elecro-magnetic telephone on 30th of January 1877. So, I decided I had to work that in somehow, I mean, since the fic is all about phone calls! *blushes*<strong>

**Please tell me what you think! ^^**


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